Hilton Smythe Group
Reviews and Complaints

I had a small cafe that I decide to put on the market in February 2023 with Hilton Smyth

I was told that the marketing price would be £49.995

and was told of cost of selling and agency fees

After not having much interest and only 1 viewing I then started to reduce the asking price.

I realised after I had reduced to £24.995 that I would still have to pay at least £5000 in agency fees. I had some interest at this stage but still no offers so I thought rather than loose a lot of hard earned money I would pull out of the advertising and then had to pay around £2300 to cancel the contract.

after a short time one of the buyers got in touch and made an offer I was thrilled with this news and set about organising the sale of my shop.

on the 12th February out of the blue I received a phone call telling me I owed money because I had sold to a person who had been introduced to me by

Hilton Smyth I said I am not prepared to pay anymore money then I received a whatsapp message saying I would have to pay the full fees or I would be taken to court. on Tuesday 13th I then received a text saying a statutory demand for Bankruptcy is due to be issued against me and to ring the accounts team to settle I find both of these methods irregular and very distressing I then found an email in my junk folder, as I havent intentionally been trying to mislead anyone, as a professional business I would expect something in writing if I have done something wrong. and I feel that your part of the agreement was to sell my business for £49.995 didnt happen,

“This company is an absolute joke. I put my business up for sale end of last year and had a sales rep assigned to me. I was in good contact with her up until around January when my emails were no longer being replied to and I didn't hear nothing from them for 6 months. Then another rep contacted me about some interest. I expressed to this person that it had been 6 months since I'd had contact and a lot had changed in that time as I was promised my business would be a quick sale as that's what I needed but unfortunately it wasn't. I told this new rep I no longer wanted to sell. All of a sudden emails were being ignored and not replied to. I told this person over and over again I was no longer selling and that I was only contactable through email. This ran over the course of about 2 months. So I contacted a different email address and finally got a response! Today I have now received a letter stating I have not been contactable for some time. Which is clearly untrue. It's them that have not been contactable not me! I'd avoid this company at all costs unless you like no communication

I actually thought this company were better than the rest, how wrong I was. Like the others they use unfair one sided contracts that enables them to take you to court to fleece you of your money regardless of the circumstances. My business was listed with them for a good 15 months and they did not even manage one viewing, they did however call me on numerous occasions to lower the asking price, it is worth noting however, that the final fee is based on the asking price when signing the contract and does not reduce each time you have to reduce the price. I terminated my contract and found a buyer within days of my end date and they still see fit to demand their fee's even though I am no longer under contract. A few months back I did a 30 day listing on ebay for my business, this produced more interest than they managed in 15 months plus it was free to list and you know exactly what it will cost you if you sell, no surprise invoice demanding immediate payment with daily interest for late payment with a cleverly written contract that puts the law on their side. Should you be in contract with these or any other business transfer agent I suggest you check your termination terms and terminate your contract without delay, do it yourself via ebay or privately, it produces better results costs nothing and you know exactly where you stand. I feel greatly insulted that they refuse to believe what I am telling them and instead of listening insist on drawing my attention to clauses in the contract which is of course written fully in their favor.

We are being taken to court for termination fees from cancelling the sale of our pub early.
This arrangement was cancelled after Hilton Smythe failed to do due diligence on a prospective buyer costing almost £2000 in solicitors fees.
The cost of termination is almost £3000 and we are now only trying to sell for £5000.
The termination fees were not pointed out when signing and we were told that dealing with Hilton Smythe was an advantage, even though our previous agent was no sale no fee.
I believe from case law that termination fees have to be highlighted.
Can anyone advise how you complaints with Hilton Smythe ended...in you favour or not?

I was stupid enough to be taken in by this company to sell my newsagents, they couldn't sell it so I gave them termination period and then sold with another company who sold it straight away.4 months after selling the business I get a email requesting payment saying went to the other agent
in the termination time which is a lie threatening cart action .we look forward to seeing them in court sellers keep away from this firm

We were unfortunate enough to cross paths with Gareth Smythe of Hilton Smythe (he is also director of several other companies) in October of 2011.

He gave us his sales spiel and convinced us to sign up to sell our business, he even offered to reduced their percentage fee and contract terms in order to secure for them the opportunity to sell our business valued by them at close to £1m.

From day one we were hounded by a Liam (another director at Hilton Smythe), we got calls from him on a daily basis asking for every detail you can imagine on the company at one stage they even wanted photographs of vehicles that were used in the business!

Only after the few weeks on the market they began putting pressure on us to reduce the asking price, within a few months we were told the business was not going to fetch anywhere near their valuation and we should consider offers at least £250k short of the asking price.

After failing to sell the business in 8 months, they sent us an invoice for £24k totally out of the blue, claiming we were in breach of their terms and conditions in particular "fails to produce any information that we deem necessary to assist in the sale of the business"

We had in fact supplied over 40 financial documents relating to the company, including full accounts for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Gareth and Liam then kept calling asking for immediate payment or threats to take us to court, when we refused to pay the invoice, they tried to negotiate an out of court settlement asking for £10k +VAT.

We stuck to our guns and refused to pay them anything, they then began court proceedings. All the initial court filling and correspondences with our solicitor were done by Gareth himself (our solicitor even commented, he looks like he has done this many times before). Once they realised we were not backing down and were prepared to see them in court, they again tried to negotiate an out of court settlement, but we refused to make any deals with them.

They have now been forced to get legal representation, we are looking forward to seeing them in court in the next few weeks and hopefully the judge will see through these con artists and a hefty legal bill will deter them from doing this to other businesses in the future.

I welcome any information regarding anyone may have with regards these scammers.